British actor Richard Griffiths of number four, Privet Drive, has died aged 65 from complications following heart surgery. Loved as one of Britain’s finest character actors for his performances on both stage and screen, Griffiths is perhaps best known for his role as Vernon Dursley, a big beefy man with hardly any neck and a very large mustache, in the small suite of independent art house films called Harry Potter and The Interchangeable Adjective-Noun.
Boy Wizard and petit grown man Daniel Radcliffe has paid tribute to his mentor, saying Griffiths offered him “encouragement, tutelage and humour,” also a place under the stairs in the pantheon of great actors: “Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments in my career.”
The first was when, in August 2000, Radcliffe received a letter informing him of his place at Hogwarts: “I was very nervous and he made me feel at ease.”
The second took place in 2007 when together they starred in Equus, a play about a boy, his horse and the very public appearance of Radcliffe’s Hamm: “It was my first time doing a play but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy.
I am proud to say I knew him.“
Griffiths’ notable filmography also included roles in Hugo, Chariots of Fire, The French Lieutenant’s Woman and cult black comedy Withnail & I. The role he most made his own, perhaps, was that of the inspirational and predatory teacher Hector in Alan Bennet’s The History Boys, for which he received acclaim in both the play’s long-running stage production and later in its filmic adaptation.
Awarded an OBE for his services to drama, Griffiths now returns to the great Pie in The Sky and is survived by his wife Heather.
Pie in The Sky is a detective-cooking TV show that aired on the ABC in the mid-90s and is also a nice metaphor for ‘the afterlife.’
via Reuters
Photo: Andrew H. Walker via Getty
